Personal property request returns murderer to court

Convicted murderer Jeffrey Wayne Wheeler was not successful in collecting some personal property, including $250 prosecutors say he stole from his victim, in a court hearing Tuesday.

By chris Conrad

Convicted murderer Jeffrey Wayne Wheeler was not successful in collecting some personal property, including $250 prosecutors say he stole from his victim, in a court hearing Tuesday.

Wheeler, 38, appeared in Jackson County Circuit Court via video feed from Two Rivers Correctional Institute in Umatilla. Wheeler pleaded guilty last year to murdering Jessica Bethany in September 2011. He was sentenced to a minimum 25 years in prison.

Wheeler has since filed a court motion trying to collect some of his property that police confiscated as evidence in the murder case.

In his motion, Wheeler asked for his shoes, suitcase, some clothing and commemorative Alcoholics Anonymous coins be returned to him.

In addition, he asked for $250 he possessed at the time of his arrest.

Prosecutor David Orr objected to Wheeler's motion, noting that Wheeler has appealed his conviction and the clothing, which included blood spatter, could be used as evidence in the unlikely event of a retrial.

"In a murder trial this could be highly relevant evidence," Orr said.

Wheeler then argued that he would be willing to forgo the shoes as long as he got the coins, some jewelry he claimed belonged to his mother and the $250 in cash and change.

However, Orr pointed out that Wheeler was essentially a transient when he committed the murder. He had been crashing at various friends' homes in the weeks before he entered Bethany's Central Point home and brutally murdered her.

Orr said that police found that Bethany's wallet was empty, which was strange since she worked as a bartender and often left work with cash from tips.

Also, about $50 in coins was found on Wheeler when he was arrested. He claims that he carried the money at all times, even when he entered Bethany's apartment that night.

Orr said he found this hard to believe.

"It seems pretty obvious that (Wheeler) did not have $250 in cash before the murder," Orr said.